Green Party of Canada media release:greenparty.ca/media-release/2013-09-09/john-deverell
John Deverell will be the Green Party’s Candidate for Toronto Centre By-Election
OTTAWA – The Green Party of Canada’s Electoral District Association for Toronto Centre has announced that well-known former journalist John Deverell will be the Green candidate in the coming federal by-election.

“This by-election is a wonderful chance for Toronto voters, with the whole country watching, to tell all the parties in Ottawa that the political system is broken and we want it fixed – now. In a by-election Toronto can feel free to vote Green and put Parliament on notice: The People Want In,” said Green candidate John Deverell.

“Among those who still bother to vote, half are unable to elect a representative to Parliament. Half of us are required to pay taxes without having a democratic voice, and this is unacceptable,” said Deverell.

“I am thrilled that John Deverell has chosen to join us and work with the Green Party to rid this country of the perverse system of voting called First Past the Post (FPTP). Only FPTP would allow a minority of voters to create a majority government. We need to make sure every vote counts,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands.

John Deverell is a former president of the Southern Ontario Newsmedia Guild and Founding Treasurer of Fair Vote Canada, the national multi-partisan campaign for equal effective votes and proportional representation.

Deverell joined the Liberal Party of Canada in 2011 hoping that it would be ready to rethink its traditional defense of FPTP voting systems. During the Liberal leadership campaign he worked for Vancouver MP Joyce Murray, among the candidates the only advocate of proportional representation.

John Deverell recently resigned from the Liberal Party to join the Green Party of Canada. “Under the leadership of Elizabeth May, the Green Party offers Canadian voters the most trustworthy instrument for democratic reform and new economic policy directions,” said Deverell.